The American firm said that the IP-based network will help transform Airtel’s reach, reliability and scalability.

It will also extend IP services to rural markets and lay the foundation needed for the rollout of 5G.

Additionally, the IP network architecture will allow Airtel to enhance its services to small and medium businesses in key growth verticals such as smart cities, IoT, utilities and retail

"Cisco and Airtel share a vision for simplification through automation, and are working closely to define mobile networking best practices that will support its growth plans," said Jonathan Davidson, senior vice president and general manager, Service Provider Business, Cisco.

"With today's announcement, Airtel is marking key milestones in its network architecture transition to prepare the company for greater reach and scale and deliver quality services to mobile users in India- no matter their location."

Notably, the network architecture is based on open network standards which will also help to simplify adoption by other operators.

"As part of Project Leap, Airtel has built a world-class network that is ready to serve the explosive growth in high-speed data services in a market with over one billion subscribers," added Randeep Sekhon, CTO at Bharti Airtel.

"Partnering with Cisco will help us transform our network architecture to enhance customer experiences while concurrently preparing for 5G and the era of connected things."